Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

Twen­ty Car­ni­val Kings and 10 Car­ni­val Queens will com­pete at Sun­day night’s Di­manche Gras show.

The dis­par­i­ty in num­bers fol­lows a de­ci­sion by the T&T Car­ni­val Bands As­so­ci­a­tion (TTC­BA) to halt the Se­nior Car­ni­val King semi­fi­nal at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Wednes­day night due to heavy rain.

Per­sis­tent show­ers be­gan short­ly af­ter the Ju­nior Car­ni­val King and Queen fi­nals and the Se­nior Car­ni­val Queen semi­fi­nals con­clud­ed, with on­ly a hand­ful of Se­nior Car­ni­val King com­peti­tors hav­ing crossed the stage.

Or­gan­is­ers ini­tial­ly paused the event in the hope that con­di­tions would im­prove. How­ev­er, with the rain con­tin­u­ing and the stage be­com­ing in­creas­ing­ly haz­ardous — par­tic­u­lar­ly for moko jumbie mas­quer­aders — the TTC­BA brought the com­pe­ti­tion to an ear­ly close.

An­nounc­ers in­formed the larg­er-than-usu­al au­di­ence that the de­ci­sion was tak­en to en­sure the safe­ty of mas­quer­aders and to pro­tect the struc­tur­al in­tegri­ty of their al­ready rain-soaked cos­tumes.

While some pa­trons ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment at the abrupt end to the Car­ni­val King seg­ment, many were sat­is­fied with the high lev­el of de­sign and per­for­mance show­cased in the ear­li­er com­pe­ti­tions.

In the Se­nior Car­ni­val Queen semi­fi­nal, vet­er­an mas­quer­ad­er and reign­ing cham­pi­on Rox­anne Oma­lo strength­ened her bid to re­tain her crown, im­prov­ing on her sec­ond-place pre­lim­i­nary fin­ish.

Oma­lo’s pre­sen­ta­tion — one of the largest in the com­pe­ti­tion — earned 408 points, eight ahead of her clos­est ri­val, Shi­nese Valere.

Valere, who placed sev­enth in the pre­lim­i­nary round, de­liv­ered an im­proved per­for­mance to po­si­tion her­self as a strong chal­lenger for the ti­tle on Sun­day night.

Should Oma­lo main­tain her se­mi-fi­nal stand­ing, she would se­cure her fifth ti­tle since her first vic­to­ry in 2018.

Priya Na­gas­sar, who cap­tured her maid­en crown in 2023, held on to third place, while pre­lim­i­nary leader Sav­it­ri Ho­lassie slipped to sixth in the semi­fi­nals.

For­mer monarch Shynel Brizan, the lone moko jumbie in the field and a crowd favourite on the night, placed fourth in the semi­fi­nals.